Review: Murder in the Crooked House

Murder in the Crooked House by Sōji Shimada
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Thanks to Netgalley and Pushkin for providing me with an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

I'm not entirely sure how to rate this book. I enjoyed certain aspects of it - the remote and uniquely interesting setting, the challenge of the locked rooms, the snow piling up and trapping the guests, the Agatha Christie feel of it all - but I also disliked a lot of things. I didn't like that the main/brilliant detective didn't show up until well past the halfway mark. I didn't like the shift in perspective from third person to first person (into the brilliant detective's friend's POV). I didn't like the wildly improbable (yet still intriguing) explanation of the murder. I also didn't like the feeling that something vital was being lost in translation, nor the fact that the formatting of the ARC meant I didn't get copies of the illustrative figures that were used within the story to show how things were laid out. I feel like that made me miss some necessary pieces of the puzzle.

I will say that, while I didn't guess the method of the murders or solve how the murders took place in locked rooms, I did guess the culprit correctly. Just an inkling I had at one specific point that really nailed it down for me, but I spent the rest of the book wondering HOW, and after that ending, there was absolutely no way I could have guessed.

So overall, I loved the nostalgic Christie feel and the twisty mystery and the fantastic setting, but didn't like the late arrival of the real protagonist, the shifts in perspective, or the completely unguessable method of murder.

I guess I'll rate it right down the middle then!
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A few positives, a few negatives, and an overwhelming sense that much was lost in translation. Still entertaining overall. Review to come upon release.

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